With the big platformer “Shovel Knight,” developer Yacht Membership Video games cemented itself as a legendary indie studio. Its second sport, “Mina the Hollower,” is lastly right here after years of “Shovel Knight” expansions and spin-offs. What I actually admire about “Mina the Hollower” is that it’s an extremely totally different sport than “Shovel Knight”. Whereas the latter was a platformer impressed by the NES period, the previous is an action-adventure that looks like a “Zelda” sport on the Recreation Boy Coloration.
“Mina the Hollower” follows our eponymous protagonist, Mina, a genius mouse whose innovations have introduced prosperity to Ossex, the lone main metropolis in Tanebrous Isle. One among her creations, the Spark Mills, have shut down and she or he goes on a journey to revive the seven turbines scattered all through the island. Whereas well-intentioned, she slowly learns that her turbines may be used for nefarious functions that she should uncover. The story is simple and units a stable basis and incentive for Mina to discover Tanebrous Isle.
The varied totally different areas across the island are splendidly various, from the sandy shores of Bone Seaside to the icy tundras of Coltrane Peak, every surroundings is graphically pushed to its limits whereas nonetheless strictly sticking with the pixel design. The best way the sport makes use of colours retains the journey visually fascinating.
Exploration in Tanebrous is a little more open-ended too. True to its retro roots, the sport doesn’t have any goal markers like trendy video games do, so that you’ll must depend on your instincts to determine what to do subsequent or the way to attain a sure area. I want there was a bit extra hand-holding on this regard, however truthfully I applaud “Mina the Hollower” for sticking with its weapons right here. Exploration is rewarding too, as you’ll have the ability to discover upgrades resembling with the ability to maintain extra therapeutic vials, which may increase your survivability.
What actually makes the world of “Mina the Hollower” really alive is the hustle and bustle of Ossex, which acts as your central hub. Its residents continuously transfer round, finishing up their days by operating retailers or just simply kicking objects down the road. It makes Mina’s solo journey much less lonely.
You’ll be able to choose from a number of totally different weapons, resembling her whip, in addition to daggers and hammers. All of them really feel radically totally different. The whip lets Mina hit enemies safely from a distance, however can take a bit longer to return out versus the daggers, that are close to instantaneous however require her to be shut up. There’s at all times a commerce off to utilizing sure weapons over others, so choose one that most closely fits your individual playstyle.
Moreover, you may customise Mina additional by equipping totally different trinkets, which increase her with passive skills. The Proto Spark offers Mina a second lease on life ought to she fall, whereas Regular Sneakers lets her transfer usually on terrain—she received’t slip on ice and shallow water received’t sluggish her down. It’s an effective way so as to add some mild RPG components to boost the gameplay.
Whereas many motion journey video games let gamers roll or dodge assaults, Mina takes a singular strategy. She will burrow underground for a short while to keep away from enemies and their strikes. Nonetheless, Mina has to first do a brief soar earlier than going underground, so that you’ll must take that into consideration when timing your burrows. The commerce off right here is that Mina’s invincibility frames final significantly longer. This lets you reposition Mina with a larger diploma of freedom than a easy dodge would do. Admittedly, this took me some time to get used to, however as soon as I bought the hold of burrowing, I cherished how briskly and agile it made Mina really feel.
Nonetheless, one draw back to the 2D-inspired graphics is that it’s typically laborious to guage distances. Throughout boss fights, I might burrow underground, and attempt to pop up behind the boss. As an alternative, I would seem proper on prime of them, and it’s a irritating problem since merely touching enemies inflicts injury onto you.
Platforming is a bit tough too, however there are many quality-of-life mechanics that make judging soar distances simpler. For instance, Mina’s shadow will at all times seem, visually guiding your eyes on the place to land.
“Mina the Hollower” isn’t a straightforward sport by any stretch of the creativeness. The bosses hit laborious as in the event that they have been in a Soulslike sport and also you’ll must be taught their assault patterns to be able to succeed. You may as well accumulate Bones which are used as each forex to purchase objects like vials to heal or new trinkets, in addition to act as EXP to degree up Mina’s parameters resembling assault and protection.
The Soulslike comparisons don’t finish there! Dying will trigger Mina to drop a “Spark” and she or he has to get better it earlier than dying once more, in any other case she’ll lose the entire Bones at the moment in her possession. So there’s a relentless stability of making an attempt to remain alive whereas gathering sufficient Bones. This rigidity forces you to be extra cautious when exploring and interesting with enemies, however in the end results in an intensely satisfying feeling if you do succeed or attain the subsequent checkpoint to regroup and take a breather.
The sport additionally has a bevy of modifiers you may activate and off if the default expertise is simply too laborious. You’ll be able to activate settings like infinite well being so that you by no means die, and even crank up the problem with Mina taking thrice as a lot injury as regular. It additionally tells you whether or not enabling a sure modifier will disable the power to unlock Achievements/Trophies in your platform. That method, you received’t have the ability to cheat your technique to 100% completion.
“Mina the Hollower” is one other daring retro-inspired journey with rewarding exploration, difficult fight, and a classy presentation. Regardless of a number of frustrations with depth notion and a few aimlessness with story development, its inventive gameplay mechanics and thrilling world makes it probably the greatest video games of 2026.
Yacht Membership Video games supplied a PC evaluation copy of this title. It launches on Might 29 for PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Swap, Swap 2, and Xbox Sequence X|S.
